Increasingly, balance is the name of the game in college basketball. Upsets aren’t that shocking any more. As the NCAA tournament moves into the Sweet 16 round, four teams seeded No. 9 or lower remain alive, three of them no higher than No. 12. And it easily could have been more: Eight double-digit seeds pulled upsets in the first round, including three of the four No. 12 seeds.

Is the upset game good for business? Yes and no, history shows. For now, it’s great. Part of the tournament’s early-round appeal is seeing the unheralded mid-major, just appearing on the national radar for the first time all season, beat a big-conference power.

Entirely new story lines open up. After 15th-seeded Florida Gulf Coast’s upset of second-seeded Georgetown on Friday night, we heard all about the back story of coach Andy Enfield – a former player and economics major at Johns Hopkins who set an all-time NCAA record for free throw shooting percentage and later made millions in business and married a Vogue model before turning to coaching. That’s a great story, one that grabbed at least a few more days of shelf life after FGCU ran away from San Diego State in the second round to extend their stay in the tournament. But make no mistake, CBS execs will be a lot happier if Kansas, Michigan or Florida represents the South region in the Final Four. It’s the perfect formula - milk the fun underdog story for two or three rounds, then turn things over to the big boys.

Yes, major brands sell. As much as fans enjoy watching upsets when they happen, they tend to tune in more to familiar names as the tourney moves along. Last year’s Final Four, which featured two big-name matchups in Kentucky-Louisville and Ohio St.-Kansas, did a bit better (9.0 rating) than the previous year, when so-so ratings for a pair of dark horses in one game (Virginian Commonwealth and Butler – 8.5 rating) offset a marquee matchup in the other semi-final between Connecticut and Kentucky (9.5). Pre-Final Four, the 2011 tourney pulled the best ratings in six years – an indication that upsets along the way helped before they became a slight drag near the end.

While the tournament is now the single biggest overall ad revenue generator in U.S. sports thanks to a plethora of games, you don’t want to shortchange the later rounds. Predictably, prices go up as the tournament moves along: the cost of a 30-second spot steadily rises from $250,000 in the first round to $700,000 in each national semifinal and to $1.3 million for the Monday night title game.

To illustrate the growing balance: in the first 27 years of the tournament’s 64/68-team format between 1985 and 2011, a 15-seed defeated a 2-seed just four times in 108 chances. Over the past two seasons, it’s happened three times in eight tries (FGCU’s win over Georgetown following last year’s ousters of Missouri and Duke by Norfolk State and Lehigh, respectively).

It’s true we’re still waiting for a No. 16 seed to upend a No. 1. But it’s growing increasingly clear that it’s just a matter of time. Remember when so many of those games were monster blowouts? Not so much anymore. Both Kansas and Gonzaga struggled in their opening games against bottom seeds this year. Last year, even mighty Kentucky beat Western Kentucky by 15 in the first round - a convincing enough win but close by historical standards. A decade or so earlier, a team like Kentucky would have won that game, oh, about 90-50.

The 2013 field still has plenty of firepower left: Louisville, Syracuse, Kansas, Michigan, and of course the gold standard, Duke, the team everyone either loves or loves to hate. The Blue Devils’ championship game matchup with Butler in 2010 did the best ratings since 1999, when Connecticut won the title over, yes, Duke (it should be noted that title game ratings have declined in general since that 1999 Duke-UConn game, as the trend of familiar top players leaving early for the NBA accelerated).

Clearly, one mid-major playing for the title is fine as long as Duke – college basketball’s version of the Yankees or Heat, is the opponent. If they falter, a Kansas or a Louisville will do as a replacememt. So here’s to LaSalle, Wichita State or Florida Gulf Coast keeping its roll going. But just one of them.